vAuto’s acqui­si­tion of Auto Trader comes at a time when con­sol­i­da­tion of infor­ma­tion tech­nolo­gies and com­pa­nies is hap­pen­ing more and more – as deal­ers look for more cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive ways to mar­ket effec­tively and strengthen cus­tomer loy­alty, with remar­ket­ing becom­ing a grow­ing seg­ment. Par­ent com­pany Auto­Trader has been at this plan for a while now, hav­ing inte­grated vAuto, Kel­ley Blue Book, VIN Solu­tions, and Home­Net Auto­mo­tive into its cor­po­rate strategy.

As remar­ket­ing changes and the upstream chan­nels become more impor­tant and com­plex, absorb­ing a com­pany like Auc­tion Genius is timely and makes sense. Com­peti­tors are trav­el­ing sim­i­lar chan­nels, with exam­ples being ADESA acquir­ing online auc­tion firm OPENLANE and with devel­op­ment of Man­heim OVE.com. As for vAuto’s deci­sion, the com­pany says Auc­tion Genius’ inte­gra­tion with vAuto’s Pro­vi­sion sys­tem will elim­i­nate the inef­fi­cien­cies and dif­fi­cul­ties deal­ers encounter as they eval­u­ate and pur­chase used vehi­cles from whole­sale auctions.